Bailey picks apart Crusaders as Lions roll to 3A semifinals

HOLLYWOOD — Sophomore quarterback Cedrick Bailey completed 19 or 27 passes for 341 yards to lead host Chaminade Madonna to a 48-0 rout of Cardinal Newman in the Class 3A regional final on Friday night.

Chaminade-Madonna (9-1) scored on its first four possessions of the game to seize a 28-0 halftime lead. The team forced a running clock on the first series of the second half.

“I would say this was a statement win,” said Chaminade-Madonna coach Dameon Jones, whose team has outscored its two playoff opponents 93-0 after an opening-round bye. “We had a great week of practice and the coaches did a superb job, but this is kind of what we have been talking about all year — forcing our will on people.

“Still, we haven’t played a perfect game year,” said Jones, whose team was penalized 12 times for 125 yards and missed an extra point. “I am still waiting for offense, defense and special teams to all be one. We are close. We are not there yet. You can’t win big ball games with penalties like that. It has to be cleaned up.”

Jones said the game plan was to come out and be more physical than Cardinal Newman and his team answered the bell. Chaminade will host the state semifinal on Dec. 3.

After holding Cardinal Newman on its opening drive of the game, the Lions went 61 yards in 13 plays to take a 7-0 lead on a 2-yard scoring run by Davion Gause. He finished the game with 11 carries for 68 yards and one TD along with three catches for 53 yards.

On the next series, Zaquan Patterson intercepted a pass by Crusaders’ freshman quarterback Davi Belfort and Chaminade-Madonna cashed in on a 15-yard scoring pass from Bailey to Edwin Joseph to extend the lead to 14-0 with 4:46 left in the first quarter.

Cardinal Newman took the ensuing kickoff and marched 67 yards in 15 plays, but the drive stalled on the Lions’ 13-yard line when Newman running back Tovani Mizell was stopped for no gain on a fourth and 3.

Bailey led the Lions on another scoring drive as he marched them 87 yards in five plays. He carried once for 28 yards and completed two of three passes for 68 yards, including a 37-yard TD pass from Bailey to Jeremiah Smith with 10:38 left in the first half.

Chaminade Madonna padded its lead to 28-0 on a 16-yard scoring toss from Bailey to Duane Thomas with 5:48 left in the second quarter. The Lions nearly forced a running clock late in the first half however Bailey’s fourth-down pass intended for Thomas with 33.2 seconds left in the half was incomplete from the 17.

“It was an amazing game,” said the 6-foot, 5-inch, 190-pound Bailey said. “We came out with a great game plan and our receivers and O-Line made some great plays and that was what it was all about. I wouldn’t say I had a perfect game, but I had a good game.

“We knew we would be able to do what we did tonight because we were working those plays all week,” he added. “We wanted to be physical and we were because that is what wins football games.”

Chaminade was penalized 10 times for 95 yards in the first half and negated two long punt returns, one a 70-yarder that would have gone for a touchdown. The Lions finished with 12 penalties for 115 yards.

Bailey capped an 80-yard drive to open the second half with a 46-yard TD pass to Jason Bourciquot just 42 seconds into the second half to force the running clock at 35-0. Bourciquot finished as the leading Lions receiver with 4 catches for 84 tards.

On the next series, Jeno Julius intercepted a Belfort pass and returned it 27 yards for the score to make it 41-0. Jaden Toussaint scored on a 30-yard run to close out the third quarter with a 48-0 lead.

Cardinal Newman (9-4) finished its first year under Jack Daniels as one of the top teams in Palm Beach County. Their only losses this year were to fellow regional finalists Benjamin, Cardinal Gibbons, and Gulliver Prep.